39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (the chess)

[Michael Yeo]

The rules seem clear but I think 7 games may have been the minimum for the lowest board in earlier years.

It is of course not unknown for FIDE's website to show outdated data.

Edit: Had a look at the 2008 results on chess-results.com and couldn't find any board prize winners with fewer than eight games played.

10.3 here also mentions the 8 board minimum for Dresden

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Congratulations to Gawain, Q vs R is a difficult one to win and he made it look trivially easy.

I was very impressed with Gawain Jones's game today. Particularly the way he gave up that pawn for piece activity and picked off his opponent's weak pawns and that Nf2 move was excellent, and as Michael said above, he (Jones) made the Q vs R stage look easy and (the stage before that) it was instructive to see how to win with Q against R and two pawns. It was one of those games where I really felt I was learning something as I was watching it.

Howell's game was a bit less pleasant to watch. I wonder whether time trouble played a part, or whether the position was just suspect out of the opening? McShane's game looked like a solid draw. I'm still a bit puzzled about Adams' game though. Someone said earlier they were surprised he didn't manage to make more of the extra pawn, and that is what I was thinking as well. Did Adams miss something earlier, or was it more drawish than it looked?

[LozCooper]

Round 10 board pairings:

Bo. 12 England (ENG) Rtg - 13 Netherlands (NED) Rtg 0 : 0
12.1 GM Adams Michael 2728 - GM Van Wely Loek 2679
12.2 GM Short Nigel D 2690 - GM Smeets Jan 2669
12.3 GM McShane Luke J 2657 - GM Giri Anish 2677
12.4 GM Jones Gawain C B 2576 - GM Stellwagen Daniel 2635

Bo. 39 England (ENG) Rtg - 58 Canada (CAN) Rtg 0 : 0
23.1 IM Houska Jovanka 2426 - WIM Yuan Yuanling 2189
23.2 WFM Grigoryan Meri 2099 - Lacau-Rodean Iulia 2024
23.3 Bhatia Kanwal K 2072 - Orlova Yelizaveta 1917
23.4 WFM Hegarty Sarah N 2084 - Kagramanov Dalia 1866

[Kevin Thurlow]

"... but if Short had been playing today we'd have had more chance of winning."

I claim a draw by repetition of comment.

[Alex Holowczak]

"... but if Short had been playing today we'd have had more chance of winning."

I claim a draw by repetition of comment.

I'm going to decline your claim; your scoresheet (well, quotation) doesn't show the same comment being made three times. I'll also have to add three minutes to your opponent's clock I'm afraid.

[Keith Arkell]

Round 10 board pairings:

Bo. 12 England (ENG) Rtg - 13 Netherlands (NED) Rtg 0 : 0
12.1 GM Adams Michael 2728 - GM Van Wely Loek 2679
12.2 GM Short Nigel D 2690 - GM Smeets Jan 2669
12.3 GM McShane Luke J 2657 - GM Giri Anish 2677
12.4 GM Jones Gawain C B 2576 - GM Stellwagen Daniel 2635

Bo. 39 England (ENG) Rtg - 58 Canada (CAN) Rtg 0 : 0
23.1 IM Houska Jovanka 2426 - WIM Yuan Yuanling 2189
23.2 WFM Grigoryan Meri 2099 - Lacau-Rodean Iulia 2024
23.3 Bhatia Kanwal K 2072 - Orlova Yelizaveta 1917
23.4 WFM Hegarty Sarah N 2084 - Kagramanov Dalia 1866

This should be a great match to watch.Makes up for not having SKY and so not being able to watch the Ryder Cup!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record,in the 'old days' the only tougher match would have been against the USSR.

C'mon the lads,and particularly all the best Ga with the board prize,and Saz looking for one of Eng's best ever bottom board female scores.

[Alex Holowczak]

This should be a great match to watch.Makes up for not having SKY and so not being able to watch the Ryder Cup!

Play has been suspended due to a waterlogged course, so you're not missing much.

Try this though! I'm watching it on stream 2...

[David Brock]

[quote="Keith Arkell"][quote="LozCooper"]Round 10 board pairings:

This should be a great match to watch.Makes up for not having SKY and so not being able to watch the Ryder Cup!

Sorry Keith best choice is to watch the chess as the Ryder cub has stopped play due to the rain so don't worry about Sky you don't need it. Saying that though if and when it starts again if you have an internet connection go to this link at you can watch it ( even the sky coverage )

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?match ... art=sports

Good luck today guys and especially Gawain

[Nick Thomas]

After the first 10 mins or so I would guess that the match will hinge on boards 2 and 4 with the other 2 being probable draws (just a guess)...

[Simon Williams]

It would be great to see Gawain get a board price, when was the last time that happened for an English player?

Going to be tough though. I guess the opening (mainline Dragon...) will soon lead to a load of chaos! Good luck Gawain and everyone else!

[David Brock]

It would be great to see Gawain get a board price, when was the last time that happened for an English player?

Going to be tough though. I guess the opening (mainline Dragon...) will soon lead to a load of chaos! Good luck Gawain and everyone else!

Maybe he should have played your Dragadorf

I prefer it to the main line Dragon

[Simon Williams]

The Dragadorf still has some surprise value, so it could have been worth a punt.

I am bit worried that Gawain has spent so long on the opening. That is just the type of position that you need to know well in advance otherwise you could end up on the wrong side of a raging attack...

On board 1, I remember looking at that line for Black after I lost horribly to Mickey (at the British) and it just looked equal to me. Black plays ...Rfd8 and ...d5, so it will be interesting to see what Mickey is planning.

Lukes game looks dead equal.

Not sure about Short's game. Still theory I guess.

[Justin Hadi]

So, does anyone have a clue what's going on in Gawain's dragon or it is just chaotic? Also looks like Smeets is playing the Short system against Short.

[Roger de Coverly]

Smeets using the De Loughry system against Nigel. http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... &start=468

Stellwagen using the "why doesn't g4 and h5 work?" variation against Gawain's Dragon.

(edit) The main line in 1986 at move 18 in the Dragon game was the exchange sac 18 Rxh5 as first seen in Karpov-Sznapik from the Dubai Olympiad, Short-Mandl from the German League and Chandler-Mestel from the British playoff. At move 20 they are still following the Short and Chandler games.

(edit - later) now down to following just the one game (on my research) Vouldis-Tiviakov from the Euro team in 1993.

[Justin Hadi]

I see, thanks, not up to date with Caro theory!